Essay: Are atheists smarter than the average bear?

North Dakota still has the lowest rate of unemployment in the United States. In September of 2010, the state unemployment rate was declared to be 3.7% according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics[1]

Another positive aspect of North Dakota is that according to a CUNY 2000 religious survey, it appeared to have the lowest per capita number of atheists in the United States (people who answered "no religion" on a survey which admittedly includes agnostics and theists who don't identify with any particular religion).[2]

The Bible declares, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want" (Psalm 23:1). North Dakota, which contains plenty of Christians, certainly seems to be a shining example of this Bible verse. North Dakota has more churches per capita than any state in the United States plus has the highest percentage of people who attend church.[3][4]

Mr. Atheist, how smart are you using Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences as a benchmark?

Oregon atheists: Too soon old, too late smart!

According to the aforementioned CUNY 2000 religious survey, Oregon was declared to have the highest per capita number of atheists in the United States (people who answered "no religion" on a survey).[5] 28% of the Oregon population declared they had "no religion".[6] According to the CUNY 2000 survey, Oregon had 7 times the rate of atheism than North Dakota.(people who answered "no religion" on a survey).[7]

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in September of 2010 that Oregon had the 7th highest level of unemployment in the United States - an unemployment rate of 10.6% .[8] The unemployment rate in Oregon in September of 2010 was reported to be nearly three times the rate of God fearing North Dakota which had an unemployment rate of 3.7![9]
If Oregon atheists are so smart, then why are so many of them unemployed? Unlike conservative economists, did they fail to predict the arrival of the Great Recession?[10] The Austrian school of economics which predicted the Great Recession is on the rise![11] By the way, the Boy Scouts, who affirm the existence of God, believe in being prepared! It appears as if words of Solomon still ring true today: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 1:7)."

I hope you didn't think I would fail to mention the Soviet Union and atheistic communism!

Karl Marx established atheism as a key part of communism. He famously said, "Religion ... is the opium of the masses."[12] He believed it was part of the "superstructure," a false culture built to maintain the status quo. Thus he denigrated Christianity as a fictional religion. Instead, Marx was an avowed atheist, as he wrote, "Communism begins from the outset with atheism; but atheism is at first far from being communism; indeed, that atheism is still mostly an abstraction."[13]

Vladimir Lenin similarly wrote: "A Marxist must be a materialist, i. e., an enemy of religion, but a dialectical materialist, i. e., one who treats the struggle against religion not in an abstract way, not on the basis of remote, purely theoretical, never varying preaching, but in a concrete way, on the basis of the class struggle which is going on in practice and is educating the masses more and better than anything else could."[14]

Jeffrey Goldberg, a national correspondent for The Atlantic magazine, asked Castro if Cuba's economic system was still worth exporting to other countries, and Castro replied: "The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore," Goldberg wrote Wednesday in a post on his Atlantic blog.

The Cuban government had no immediate comment on Goldberg's account.[15]

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The Soviet atheists, Cuban atheists and many other world atheists could have picked any economic system they wished. What economic system did they pick? Communism! The joke among Russians under Soviet communism was: "We pretend to work. And the state pretends to pay us".

Capitalism has lifted more people out of poverty than any other economic system in the history of the earth.[17]

Irreligion and superstition

The Wall Street Journal reported: "A comprehensive new study released by Baylor University yesterday, shows ...that the irreligious and the members of more liberal Protestant denominations, far from being resistant to superstition, tend to be much more likely to believe in the paranormal and in pseudoscience than evangelical Christians."[18]

The reality is that the New Atheist campaign, by discouraging religion, won't create a new group of intelligent, skeptical, enlightened beings. Far from it: It might actually encourage new levels of mass superstition. And that's not a conclusion to take on faith -- it's what the empirical data tell us.

"What Americans Really Believe," a comprehensive new study released by Baylor University yesterday, shows that traditional Christian religion greatly decreases belief in everything from the efficacy of palm readers to the usefulness of astrology. It also shows that the irreligious and the members of more liberal Protestant denominations, far from being resistant to superstition, tend to be much more likely to believe in the paranormal and in pseudoscience than evangelical Christians....

This is not a new finding. In his 1983 book "The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener," skeptic and science writer Martin Gardner cited the decline of traditional religious belief among the better educated as one of the causes for an increase in pseudoscience, cults and superstition. He referenced a 1980 study published in the magazine Skeptical Inquirer that showed irreligious college students to be by far the most likely to embrace paranormal beliefs, while born-again Christian college students were the least likely.[19]

I, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, handily won my debate with atheist Richard Dawkins according to the college student audience.[21] Richard was very upset afterwords and denied the videotaped debate took place. He also claimed I shrieked like Adolf Hitler which really makes me suspect he did not forget about the debate that he lost to me. I hate to say it Richard, but your "superior atheist intellect" was no match for me.

Atheist makes candid admission?

"actually, I﻿ do have trouble finding a smart, intelligent and atheist girlfriend cause they are so rare..." [22]

Atheists, have those pesky bears become unbearable?

Atheists, are you sick and tired of pesky bears dragging your trash around your property and creating an unsightly mess? You can't seem to outsmart those wily bears and you don't have enough machismo to stand up to them? There is no longer need to despair! The genius of private enterprise has come to your rescue and government bureaucrats have CERTIFIED their handiwork. Yes, there are now CERTIFIED bear resistant trash containers! Go HERE and never again be humiliated by God's creation the bear.